What Can You Say?

There's nothing that can make the loss to South Florida feel any better. WVU just got beat...whether they beat themselves or USF beat them is irrelevant. The fact of the matter is that #7 WVU lost and is now 9-2 and is out of any hope for a BCS bowl and may find themselves in the Sun, International or Insight.com bowl instead of a major January bowl. Worse than that, WVU shot themselves and the Big East in the foot for next season because this will likely decrease WVU's value going into the 2007-08 season...we won't be #6 like last year despite the number of returners. It's very sad...

But, hey, you could see it coming. There was a weird feeling at Mountaineer Field even before the kickoff. The students were out of town and the crowd was absolutely flat. I just assumed everyone must have been knitting in the stands or something. Rich Rod showed early that he didn't respect the Bulls by faking a field goal on 4th and 4 instead of just kicking and putting points on the board. He probably figured, like most Mountaineer fans, we would score at-will and what makes the difference. The difference was huge.

South Florida beat us with what we usually beat teams with: speed. USF reacted well to every play and swarmed to the ball. The only way to stop that is to throw the ball down the field. Instead, WVU reverted to its usual ways with draws, inside options and screen passes. USF is way to fast to allow those to turn into the same big plays we had against Pitt. Slaton only had 43 yards on 18 carries and a devestating fumble at the goal line. It was worse for Pat who had 17 yards on 15 carries. Not Heisman numbers...not at all. When we did pass, which wasn't nearly enough, we had some success. White was 14 for 22 for 178 yards, 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. The last interception was the dagger.

Defensively, I thought we played well. USF had 84 yards on the ground and 279 in the air but had two interceptions. But, once again, we couldn't stop the Bulls on 3rd down when it mattered most...they were 7 of 14 on conversions. But, for the most part, I thought the defense played well enough to keep us in the game. On a typical day with the offense clicking, we would have blown them out of the water. The 4 turnovers proved to be the difference.

So, anyway, to recap quickly: The team didn't show up, the crowd didn't show up (until late in the 4th quarter) and ESPN, unfortunately, did. We were outcoached and outplayed on a beautiful November day in Morgantown with a lot riding on the line. Hopefully WVU can regroup and we can take care of Rutgers in a cold Saturday night game to salvage some respect. Maybe the Gator will still look at us. I'm not optimistic about that...but we have to win and then wait to see...